[SOLVED] GRUB question - TC boot

[secdroid]

I have a laptop with some handicaps: no CDROM and unable to boot from USB.  (At least I couldn't boot TC via USB with a boot floppy around the time of TC 1.0)

OK, here's what I did to try to install TC 2.2 to HD:
- booted Damn Small Linux
- followed "Install Tiny Core Linux" page instructions as closely as possible.
- GRUB HD MBR for TC created by DSL unable to boot TC.  "No setup signature found" error
- created GRUB boot floppy
- boot GRUB floppy and specify:
  -- root (hd0,0)
  -- kernel /boot/bzImage
  -- initrd /boot/tinycore.gz
  -- boot

Hooray!  TC is there on the HD.  /boot/grub directories look OK.

Tried downloading and running grub-0.97-splash.tce .  Works.  Gives me "GNU GRUB version 0.97"  Tried re-installing to MBR.  Try booting.  No boot.  Blank screen.

Rebooted with GRUB boot floppy into TC.  OK.

I suspect I'm missing something obvious here, but I'm getting a bit punchy.  So close...

Suggestions?

[combo3]

I recently did almost the exact same thing with similar restrictions.

Did you remember to copy all the new stage files over from your floppy to  /mnt/hda1/boot/grub on your hard drive?

[secdroid]

Did you remember to copy all the new stage files over from your floppy to  /mnt/hda1/boot/grub on your hard drive?

That was the trick!  Backed up original stage* files, copied stage* from GRUB boot floppy, re-ran TC's GRUB root--setup--quit sequence and rebooted.

Thank you!  Nice to get this old laptop back into productive use.  Much prefer TC for the purpose.

Has the state of booting antique computers via floppy/USB improved since 1.0 or was this a reasonable way to install?

[alu]

i would need more info, because if grub install correctly onto the mbr, and if you have copied bzImage and tinycore.gz onto your hd with the correct lines in your menu.list, it should work

[danielibarnes]

I had this same problem recently. It's worth mentioning that the "TC Terminal Server" feature allows you to use one Tiny Core system to serve boot files via PXE to another system. My laptop had no CDROM or USB boot ability, but I could PXE boot. I used this to boot and install Tiny Core on the laptop.

If your BIOS does not support PXE boot, get a bootable floppy from Rom-O-Matic:
http://rom-o-matic.net/

Daniel

[secdroid]

It's worth mentioning that the "TC Terminal Server" feature allows you to use one Tiny Core system to serve boot files via PXE to another system. My laptop had no CDROM or USB boot ability, but I could PXE boot. I used this to boot and install Tiny Core on the laptop.

If your BIOS does not support PXE boot, get a bootable floppy from Rom-O-Matic:
http://rom-o-matic.net/

Thank you.  That would have been a much easier solution.

Of course my way was a "learning experience" and "built character."  Nothing says "fun" like trying to sort out the GRUB "documentation."   

[clach04]

I have a laptop with some handicaps: no CDROM and unable to boot from USB.  (At least I couldn't boot TC via USB with a boot floppy around the time of TC 1.0)...

I've an circa 2001'ish PC that won't boot from usb. But I found http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html does! I'm using grub and I just added an entry for Plop, which then gives me an option to boot from USB.

Probably a little late for this problem but very useful boot manager. I think grub2 is supposed to support this (and iso image from harddrive boots) but I've not been brave enough to try that.

Chris

[secdroid]

I've an circa 2001'ish PC that won't boot from usb. But I found http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html does! I'm using grub and I just added an entry for Plop, which then gives me an option to boot from USB.

Thanks for the tip.  I tested PLOP thoroughly and it didn't quite work for me.  It appears that the PLOP drivers aren't completely compatible with the circa-1997 USB UHCI on the P II Micron laptop in question.  Even though I set the PLOP option for USB 1.1 mode, it booted TC OK, got part way through the boot process and stalled.  Same behavior with SliTaz Linux.  I tested booting the USB sticks on my desktop before and after my laptop tests.  The sticks booted perfectly.  I also noted that a cold boot on the laptop helped a bit; warm boots were much more problematical.  The laptop runs TC and SliTaz off of HD perfectly (albeit slowly...)   

While I wasn't as thorough in testing TC PXE boots previously, it appears that my PCI wired ethernet adapter may not be supported by the PXE floppy boot disks.  Works fine when running TC or SliTaz from HD.

I saw a cheap external drive case for 2.5" IDE HDs (just $6 S/H) and bought it.  I'm going to pull the laptop HD, attach it to my desktop and do a better job of partitioning, installing DOS tools, TC, and SliTaz.  Great little spare computer, running the right software.  Just a real pain to install to because of the primitive BIOS (no USB CD or flash boot), broken CDR, primitive USB UHCI, PCI ethernet, etc.

BTW, I ran across a post about using BG-Rescue Linux (installable from 2 floppies) to copy the Arch Linux kernel and then do an FTP Arch install.  I haven't tried it, but the process is well documented and user comments were favorable.  The process would be adaptable to TC and other Linuxes.  http://www.eldamar.se/blog/2009/01/archlinux-floppy-usb-linux-installation/